The Simons Observatory: Science Goals and Forecasts for the Enhanced Large Aperture Telescope
Abstract
We describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of Planck. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at ; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from Rubin of overlapping sky.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.00636,
title = {The Simons Observatory: Science Goals and Forecasts for the Enhanced Large Aperture Telescope},
author = {The Simons Observatory Collaboration and M. Abitbol and I. Abril-Cabezas and S. Adachi and P. Ade and A. E. Adler and P. Agrawal and J. Aguirre and Z. Ahmed and S. Aiola and T. Alford and A. Ali and D. Alonso and M. A. Alvarez and R. An and K. Arnold and P. Ashton and Z. Atkins and J. Austermann and S. Azzoni and C. Baccigalupi and A. Baleato Lizancos and D. Barron and P. Barry and J. Bartlett and N. Battaglia and R. Battye and E. Baxter and A. Bazarko and J. A. Beall and R. Bean and D. Beck and S. Beckman and J. Begin and A. Beheshti and B. Beringue and T. Bhandarkar and S. Bhimani and F. Bianchini and E. Biermann and S. Biquard and B. Bixler and S. Boada and D. Boettger and B. Bolliet and J. R. Bond and J. Borrill and J. Borrow and C. Braithwaite and T. L. R. Brien and M. L. Brown and S. M. Bruno and S. Bryan and R. Bustos and H. Cai and E. Calabrese and V. Calafut and F. M. Carl and A. Carones and J. Carron and A. Challinor and P. Chanial and N. Chen and K. Cheung and B. Chiang and Y. Chinone and J. Chluba and H. S. Cho and S. K. Choi and M. Chu and J. Clancy and S. E. Clark and P. Clarke and J. Cleary and D. L. Clements and J. Connors and C. Contaldi and G. Coppi and L. Corbett and N. F. Cothard and W. Coulton and K. D. Crowley and K. T. Crowley and A. Cukierman and J. M. D'Ewart and K. Dachlythra and R. Datta and S. Day-Weiss and T. de Haan and M. Devlin and L. Di Mascolo and S. Dicker and B. Dober and C. Doux and P. Dow and S. Doyle and C. J. Duell and S. M. Duff and A. J. Duivenvoorden and J. Dunkley and D. Dutcher and R. Dünner and M. Edenton and H. El Bouhargani and J. Errard and G. Fabbian and V. Fanfani and G. S. Farren and J. Fergusson and S. Ferraro and R. Flauger and A. Foster and K. Freese and J. C. Frisch and A. Frolov and G. Fuller and N. Galitzki and P. A. Gallardo and J. T. Galvez Ghersi and K. Ganga and J. Gao and X. Garrido and E. Gawiser and M. Gerbino and R. Gerras and S. Giardiello and A. Gill and V. Gilles and U. Giri and E. Gleave and V. Gluscevic and N. Goeckner-Wald and J. E. Golec and S. Gordon and M. Gralla and S. Gratton and D. Green and J. C. Groh and C. Groppi and Y. Guan and N. Gupta and J. E. Guðmundsson and S. Hagstotz and P. Hargrave and S. Haridas and K. Harrington and I. Harrison and M. Hasegawa and M. Hasselfield and V. Haynes and M. Hazumi and A. He and E. Healy and S. W. Henderson and B. S. Hensley and E. Hertig and C. Hervías-Caimapo and M. Higuchi and C. A. Hill and J. C. Hill and G. Hilton and M. Hilton and A. D. Hincks and G. Hinshaw and R. Hložek and A. Y. Q. Ho and S. Ho and S. P. Ho and T. D. Hoang and J. Hoh and E. Hornecker and A. L. Hornsby and S. C. Hotinli and Z. Huang and Z. B. Huber and J. Hubmayr and K. Huffenberger and J. P. Hughes and A. Idicherian Lonappan and M. Ikape and K. Irwin and J. Iuliano and A. H. Jaffe and B. Jain and H. T. Jense and O. Jeong and A. Johnson and B. R. Johnson and M. Johnson and M. Jones and B. Jost and D. Kaneko and E. D. Karpel and Y. Kasai and N. Katayama and B. Keating and B. Keller and R. Keskitalo and J. Kim and T. Kisner and K. Kiuchi and J. Klein and K. Knowles and A. M. Kofman and B. J. Koopman and A. Kosowsky and R. Kou and N. Krachmalnicoff and D. Kramer and A. Krishak and A. Krolewski and A. Kusaka and A. Kusiak and P. La Plante and A. La Posta and A. Laguë and J. Lashner and M. Lattanzi and A. Lee and E. Lee and J. Leech and C. Lessler and J. S. Leung and A. Lewis and Y. Li and Z. Li and M. Limon and L. Lin and M. Link and J. Liu and Y. Liu and J. Lonergan and T. Louis and T. Lucas and M. Ludlam and M. Lungu and M. Lyons and N. MacCrann and A. MacInnis and M. Madhavacheril and D. Mak and F. Maldonado and M. Mallaby-Kay and A. Manduca and A. Mangu and H. Mani and A. S. Maniyar and G. A. Marques and J. Mates and T. Matsumura and P. Mauskopf and A. May and N. McCallum and H. McCarrick and F. McCarthy and M. McCulloch and J. McMahon and P. D. Meerburg and Y. Mehta and J. Melin and J. Meyers and A. Middleton and A. Miller and M. Mirmelstein and K. Moodley and J. Moore and M. Morshed and T. Morton and E. Moser and T. Mroczkowski and M. Murata and M. Münchmeyer and S. Naess and H. Nakata and T. Namikawa and M. Nashimoto and F. Nati and P. Natoli and M. Negrello and S. K. Nerval and L. Newburgh and D. V. Nguyen and A. Nicola and M. D. Niemack and H. Nishino and Y. Nishinomiya and A. Orlando and J. Orlowski-Scherer and L. Pagano and L. A. Page and S. Pandey and A. Papageorgiou and I. Paraskevakos and B. Partridge and R. Patki and M. Peel and K. Perez Sarmiento and F. Perrotta and P. Phakathi and L. Piccirillo and E. Pierpaoli and T. Pinsonneault-Marotte and G. Pisano and D. Poletti and R. Puddu and G. Puglisi and F. J. Qu and M. J. Randall and C. Ranucci and C. Raum and R. Reeves and C. L. Reichardt and M. Remazeilles and Y. Rephaeli and D. Riechers and J. Robe and M. F. Robertson and N. Robertson and K. Rogers and F. Rojas and A. Romero and E. Rosenberg and A. Rotti and S. Rowe and A. Roy and S. Sadeh and N. Sailer and K. Sakaguri and T. Sakuma and Y. Sakurai and M. Salatino and G. H. Sanders and D. Sasaki and M. Sathyanarayana Rao and T. P. Satterthwaite and L. Saunders and L. Scalcinati and E. Schaan and B. Schmitt and M. Schmittfull and N. Sehgal and J. Seibert and Y. Seino and U. Seljak and S. Shaikh and E. Shaw and P. Shellard and B. Sherwin and M. Shimon and J. E. Shroyer and C. Sierra and J. Sievers and C. Sifón and P. Sikhosana and M. Silva-Feaver and S. M. Simon and A. Sinclair and K. Smith and W. Sohn and X. Song and R. F. Sonka and D. Spergel and J. Spisak and S. T. Staggs and G. Stein and J. R. Stevens and R. Stompor and E. Storer and R. Sudiwala and J. Sugiyama and K. M. Surrao and S. Sutariya and A. Suzuki and J. Suzuki and O. Tajima and S. Takakura and A. Takeuchi and I. Tansieri and A. C. Taylor and G. Teply and T. Terasaki and A. Thomas and D. B. Thomas and R. Thornton and H. Trac and T. Tsan and E. Tsang King Sang and C. Tucker and J. Ullom and L. Vacher and L. Vale and A. van Engelen and J. Van Lanen and J. van Marrewijk and D. D. Van Winkle and C. Vargas and E. M. Vavagiakis and I. Veenendaal and C. Vergès and M. Vissers and M. Viña and K. Wagoner and S. Walker and L. Walters and Y. Wang and B. Westbrook and J. Williams and P. Williams and H. Winch and E. J. Wollack and K. Wolz and J. Wong and Z. Xu and K. Yamada and E. Young and B. Yu and C. Yu and M. Zannoni and K. Zheng and N. Zhu and A. Zonca and I. Zubeldia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.00636},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
45 pages, 7 figures; abstract slightly abridged; matches JCAP accepted version. Author contributions to this paper are available at https://simonsobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Author-contribution-statement-20250228.pdf